2010 marks the 14th year that Softec has been serving the Central Coast and is year of major transition for Softec. If you are reading this post then you have obviously noted the launch of our new website, which is so much more than a website; it is the virtual Softec community. Thanks to the generous donation of board member, Justin Couto, and his development team, Softec is able to realize a long-time dream of having an online community where technology-minded people can gather virtually to learn, discuss, and share the local technology happenings.
The 2009-2010 Board of Directors just had our annual strategy session to discuss where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. With this session setting course for the upcoming year and beyond, this is a good time to review the business of the past year.
Events
Softec hosts monthly networking meeting with occasional larger-scale meetings. This past year we introduced IgniteSLO, an event which gives brave presenters 5 minutes to speak in front of the membership about a topic isn't their day job. While it sounds simple enough, the format requires each presenter to have 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds and a hard cut-off at 5 minutes. Impressively, each presenter nailed the 5 minutes and kept pace with their auto-advancing slides. We learned about living off the grid, cochlear implants, Perpetuum Jazzile, and water, to name just a few. Softec also hosted the 13th Annual High Technology Symposium where we learned about the new, greener technologies that are available now.
Roundtables
Softec continues to host the CEO Roundtable program, managed by former board member, Bob Dumouchel. The CEO Roundtable brings together in small-group format the leaders of local companies to share and discuss the challenges and opportunities they face as they run the businesses in our community.
Membership
Membership to Softec continues to be free, as it has been since our inception so many years ago. Our subscriber list is 1,500 members strong and continues to grow. In addition, we have 46 paid sponsors who show their support to Softec through financial contributions ranging from $50 - $2,500 dollars. These supporters make Softec possible.
Communications & Web
The launch of the new website has taken countless hours over the past year. So much thought, energy, and time went into making this website the community's website. What you see here today is only the beginning of the many, many features that will be rolled out over the next few months.
On the Horizon
You speak, we listen. This last year we have heard an increased demand for higher-quality, technology specific events. As we move through 2010 and beyond we hope to bring you the events you want. We will continue to balance dinner events with open houses to allow for choices between paid events and free events. In addition, we will bring IgniteSLO in June and the Symposium in September. Finally, one of our major goals for 2010 is to increase membership and event attendance. We realize that attendance is driven by the meeting content and the price of attendance. It is our hope that both the content and fee for admission gets to a place where our members can't resist attending our many events.
Softec is excited about the year ahead and look forward to serving the technology community at higher and higher levels each year. Thank you to everybody for your support and an extra thank you to our sponsors for their financial support. Please let us know what you are looking for in Softec; we will strive to serve the needs of the technology community to our fullest.
Thank you,
Hillary Trout
Chairman of the Board & President